Antique Berlin Woolwork Oval Panel, Bird and Flowers on Black Ground, Gilt Frame

An antique Berlin woolwork oval panel, a large bird perched among peonies, roses, and trailing vines in polychrome wool tent-stitch on a black ground, in a later gilt oval frame under glass. Berlin work was the dominant mid-19th-century domestic needlework, charted square by square from published patterns; the deep black ground seen here was the most prized convention of peak Berlin work, roughly 1850 to 1880, throwing the warm reds and creams forward. This is the flat tent-stitch form, not the carved plush variant. The verso keeps an early 20th-century alligator-paper backing and an Andersen Galleries, Chicago framer's label, documenting an American reframing; the needlework is unsigned, so its country of origin is not established.

The tent-stitch needlework is intact with warm color, showing only minor fading and light soiling, displayed under glass. The later gilt oval frame has surface wear and a crack, and the verso retains its embossed alligator-paper backing — cracked across the top — with an Andersen Galleries, Chicago framer's label.